Anti-Israel Democratic candidate El-Sayed nearing victory in Michigan Senate primary

Progressive, anti-Israel candidate Abdul El-Sayed was leading a tight race for Michigan’s Democratic US Senate nomination against moderate US Rep. Haley Stevens in the early morning hours of Wednesday, with early tallies showing El-Sayed with a small lead as some outlets called the race in his favor.

Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day.

“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”

The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings, with positions on Israel and the Middle East at the forefront of the fight.

The winner will face Republican Mike Rogers in November in a race critical to Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of the US Senate.

With 93 percent of the votes counted by early Wednesday morning, Politico showed El-Sayed with 48.7% of the vote and Stevens with 47.3%.

NBC called the vote in favor of El-Sayed, but most US outlets said the race was still too close to call.

The mood started out jubilant Tuesday evening at El-Sayed’s election night watch party at a concert hall in Detroit. Over 200 supporters cheered as a large projector displayed his early lead in the race, though only single digits of the results were in. But as more of the mail-in vote was tallied, the crowd started to boo as his lead eroded.

Scattered figures throughout the crowd wore keffiyehs and other pro-Palestinian gear. One supporter clad in a campaign shirt for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also sported a red “Make Palestine Free Again” hat, styled in the manner of a pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” hat.

“Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the US Senate.”

The contest has emerged as one of the clearest tests yet of the direction of the Democratic Party, pitting El-Sayed’s campaign against Stevens, an establishment-backed moderate supported by Democratic leaders and pro-Israel groups.

El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” finance reform, and ending military aid to Israel. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, focused on manufacturing and the economy. She stressed her past victories in tough races, saying she would be best positioned to beat Rogers.

The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC and its affiliates have spent more than $30 million supporting Stevens, a stalwart backer of the Jewish state. El-Sayed and his backers have seized on the group’s intervention as an example of the problems of big money in politics.

Meanwhile, as El-Sayed and Stevens battled it out for the Michigan Senate nomination, a Jewish LGBTQ Democrat easily picked up the party’s nomination for Stevens’ House seat.

Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who has spoken out against antisemitism from the state house floor, netted the Democratic nomination for the state’s 11th District.

The Associated Press called the race for Moss after 74% of the vote had been counted, with him taking 49.2% of the vote, far outpacing his next-closest rival, pro-Palestinian attorney Aisha Farooqi, at 32.9%. The district is located in Oakland County, a suburban Detroit region with a high concentration of Jews, and includes Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, which was heavily damaged in an attack earlier this year.

On Tuesday night, Moss expressed appreciation to his supporters via X. “Thank you Oakland County! It’s the honor of a lifetime to be your Democratic nominee.”

Many of Stevens’ most prominent Jewish supporters — some of whom have vowed to fundraise for Republican candidate Mike Rogers if she loses her primary race — also expressed their support of Moss.

But Michigan’s progressives did not come away empty-handed in the House races, with an outspoken pro-Palestinian progressive, William Lawrence, besting two establishment-backed picks for a battleground district in the state on Tuesday.

Lawrence, a co-founder of the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement, took the Democratic nomination in the state’s 7th District, with the Associated Press calling the race for him Tuesday night. With 58% of the vote in, Lawrence had around 43% of the tally in the three-way race.

His opponents, Bridget Brink, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, two centrist candidates who boasted military and foreign policy backgrounds, effectively split the establishment vote and opened a lane for the progressive.

At the time the AP called the race for Lawrence, another House candidate backed by El-Sayed, state Rep. Donavan McKinney, was awaiting results in his challenge to the incumbent in Michigan’s 13th District.

As with several other victorious Democratic House candidates this primary cycle, Lawrence made pro-Palestinian advocacy a central plank of his campaign. He was the only Democrat in his race to accuse Israel of genocide, and at his rally with El-Sayed in Lansing, the candidate had called for America to “stop arming Israel.”

In Missouri, moderate Democrats picked up a win as incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell registered a resounding victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary against Cori Bush, a prominent Democratic socialist and ardent critic of Israel.

The Associated Press called the race just an hour after polls closed, at 8:02 p.m. local time. By the time 99% of the vote was counted, Bell had garnered 59.2% to Bush’s 36.9%.

The primary is a déjà vu moment for St. Louis. The same pair of candidates vied just two years ago to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District.

Bell prevailed in 2024 to oust Bush in a clash that was largely defined by a $9 million influx of AIPAC cash in support of Bell. In this rematch, Bush made the American Israel Public Affairs Committee a central issue in her campaign, similar to other Democratic Socialists of America candidates.

“AIPAC has become yet another way for MAGA-donors to divide the Democratic base by meddling in primaries,” Bush told JTA in a written statement prior to the primary. “In St. Louis and across the country, people know that our fight against antisemitism means fighting against the far-right’s effort to divide us.”

In response to Bell’s decisive win on Tuesday, AIPAC posted its congratulations on X: “Our community was proud to support a strong, principled Democratic leader,” the lobby stated.

The Washington, DC-based Jewish Democratic Council of America, which had mobilized networks of voters to make phone calls in support of Bell, added their congratulations to the congressman following his victory.

“Rep. Bell is a leader in taking on Trump’s corruption,” the group posted on X. “We look forward to seeing him continue to fight for our Jewish and Democratic values.”

Aside from their conflicting perspectives on Israel, Bell and Bush have much in common. Born in Missouri in the mid-1970s, they are both Black progressive Democrats who entered politics after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in the city of Ferguson.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, voters on Tuesday picked establishment Democrats — a prosecutor and a former congresswoman — as their nominees to take on Republican incumbents in two congressional districts the party hopes to flip in November as part of a broader fight for control of the US House.

Shannon Taylor, the elected top prosecutor in a suburban Richmond county, will take on longtime GOP incumbent Rob Wittman in the 1st Congressional District. The coastal 2nd Congressional District, a true swing district with a heavy military presence, will see a rematch between two veterans — former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria and Jen Kiggans, who ousted her in 2022.

Taylor and Luria were backed by the House Democrats’ campaign arm and a wide array of Democratic leaders, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

In Virginia, Democratic primary voters have a history of rewarding moderate candidates, a trend that continued with the wins by Luria and Taylor on Tuesday. Taylor won in a crowded, seven-way primary that included a progressive candidate who won about a fifth of the vote, while Luria defeated three opponents.

Elsewhere in the state, two incumbents, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer and McGuire, defeated their primary opponents.

In central Virginia’s 5th District, Trump-endorsed McGuire, a former Navy SEAL and state lawmaker, beat veteran Melanie Lucero.

He will go on to face Perriello, a former congressman who is seeking the chance at a comeback and won a three-way race for the Democratic nomination. Perriello formerly represented the district for one term beginning in 2009. Some Democrats are hopeful about the party’s chances of flipping the 5th District, though it leans solidly Republican.

Beyer won in northern Virginia’s overwhelmingly blue 8th District surrounding Washington and is expected to cruise to reelection in November.

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